Chapter Text
Avid was done.
He tried to warn them! He was trying to help!
Well— since they didn't want his help, he'll let them be!
You may not be a vampire, but you have the makings of a monster.
—Fuck them, honestly.
Him? A monster? Not yet All he had wanted was for everyone to be safe! For them to not end up like her- like him— Why don't they see that?
Ungrateful, they're ungrateful and stupid! Let them deal with the vampires by themselves! It's not his problem anymore.
He slowed down from his angry stomping, he needs shelter.
He was on his way to one of the tombs, for a new tome to help him live in the wilderness(since he doesn't have anyone to watch his back anymore-). He knows there are vampires in this place, he's not gonna get caught unaware.
Should he set up out of the way of the tombs? That way there's less of a chance of bumping into one of the townsfolk, but he'd have to walk all the way to one of the tombs… Should he avoid the beacons, too?
A foreboding feeling creeps its way into his core.
… They desecrated the crypt… Oh well, guess that's something everybody else has to deal with.
He squashes down the worry coiling in his gut.
It's no longer his problem.
Maybe he should build at the foot of one of the hills? With flatter land and space for a pen for livestock.
The area where the Dark Oak, Spruce and Dead-woods meet is flat enough, with access to a few of the tombs while also relatively out of the way. It could work.
Now, to find the perfect spot…
After an hour or two of walking around, he's found a nice spot — as sunny as the cloudy skies of Oakhurst allow (because vampire safety), out of the way, close to everything and, if he doesn't build too tall, he shouldn't be that noticeable! Unless he's using a campfire and someone's on one of the hills… Then the smoke will give out his position… He should have thought about that. Oh well, the woods are thick enough to lose your way in once you lose the high ground, he should be fine.
He's also found a pretty deep cave nearby, which he can use to mine for resources. Which is really convenient! He'll need those, he's gonna need a lot of silver to vampire-proof his house. At least now he doesn't have to share. One good thing about this self-imposed exile.
He chopped a few trees to make space, shovelled the first around to level out the place and then dug out the foundations so he could lay them out with stone.
This isn't that new to him, he had worked on a house before. Not build one from the ground up, but repairing can't be that different.
It's nothing new, really. It's nothing new.
Back then, when they first started monster hunting, him and his partner, people thought them crazy, too.
They had to move into the woods, making a home out of an abandoned cabin they were lucky to have found.
They had to move away when the villagers had accused them of stealing money to pay for food. They didn't believe when they said it was from people rewarding them for saving them from monsters like werewolves and vampires.
When they moved, they decided to also start a vegetable garden, so they didn't have to rely solely on the nearby village. They didn't talk much of their profession, too. Lest they get shunned and chased out again.
So, building a house is much more tiring than repairing one. What a surprise.
It took him hours to get the walls up, and they weren't even finished. The foundation's elevated so you need to step up a small set of stairs to reach the porch. So he can have the higher ground or something.
He lights up the surrounding area with torches while there's still daylight left. He should put up a fence, too. He doesn't want any undead creeping up on him while he's distracted like when she- Shut! You have better things to focus on! Like how the skeletons may still catch him off guard… One thing Oakhurst has that he already misses is their tall walls.
"Cluck cluck." Hm? A chicken?
He turns his head away from the the crafting table. It is, indeed, a chicken. It waddles up to Avid and tilts its head at him.
"Hi. What are you doing here? Did you get outcasted too?" It was probably pretty pathetic to project on a random chicken in the woods but he's lonely, okay! He used to be able to spend days alone, waiting for her to go back from a hunt.
"Cluck cluck."
He crouches, holding out a handful of seeds for the chicken to take. Maybe he should save those for when he needs to make a farm, but he really just… Wanted to do something nice, even if it's for just a chicken that wandered up to him. He wants to help, the chicken will let him, unlike the townsfolk.
The chicken's head immediately focused on the seeds in his hand, and it rushed the two feet between them to eat out of his hand.
He retreated his hand after it finished, the chicken didn't walk away, though. It stayed and stared at him.
"Uhm… Are you still hungry?" He asked, like it could actually answer him.
It clucked at him.
"That's a no." Not sure how he knows that, but he does.
The chicken waddles closer to his leg and picks at his pant leg, picking out the dust and dirt, like it's grooming.
"… Thank you." He pets its head with a finger. The chicken clucks at him, approvingly(he's still not sure how he understands her- her??? Okay, the chicken's a her).
"… I'm gonna call you Jimmy."
It was nicer, with Jimmy around, felt less lonely. Jimmy really made for great company.
He had finished the fence and set it in the windows while rambling about nothing and everything to the hen.
The hen was, heh, a mother hen, clucking and pecking at him to take a break whenever it deemed he had worked too long.
He had even finished just before the undead would come out, so he picked up the chicken and headed inside the unfinished cabin.
He laid out his bedroll(he's so glad he always keeps a bag ready to go) in a corner and set the bag next to his head and laid down. Jimmy settled at the crook of his neck where it—, shielding the vulnerable area.
He stared at the dark, red stained clouds and the bright blood moon. The clouds shifted with the wind he was mostly protected from.
Tomorrow, he'll finish the roof and start a small vegetable farm. Maybe build a pen if he has the time.
He sighs, he had just finished doing that in Oakhurst, only to have to start from scratch again. Ugh!
Now he's in the middle of the forest, on an unfinished house, with undead roaming outside and his neck is-
"Squeak!"
He jumps, startled, turning to where the sound came from.
It's a bat, looking at him through the window.
…
"What are you doing here? Go away." He tells it, like it can actually understand him.
… "Squeak."
Okay.
He frowns. What is it with random animals coming up and just staying to hang around?
"Squeak!" Another bat joins the other.
"Great, you called over your friend." He says, dryly, to the first one.
"Squeak." The first one replies.
"Iiiiiiiii need to sleep." He falls back on the bedroll, immediately regretting it after hitting his head. "Oof!" Squeaking follows.
"Yeah, laugh at me, at my pain, have your fill, fuck you."
"Cluck cluck."
"I am not being over dramatic, Jimmy, I am being the perfect amount of dramatic." He retorts.
"Cluck cluck."
He groans and throws an arm over his eyes. "I'm just gonna…" He didn't finish that sentence, opting to just doze off.
Drifting off, he doesn't notice one of the bats flying off on the direction of the ruined manor.